Tern Island Days

I sometimes get wrapped up in all the work we are doing and I then try to remind myself to stop and look around. I get up in the morning to Frigatebirds soaring along the barracks wall, almost within reach of my window. Each day I watch the growth of 2 Laysan Albatross chicks along the sand outside my window and some mornings I get out of bed to threatened Green Sea Turtles and critically endangered Monk Seals in the surf within 30 feet of my bed. I ride the old bike up and down the runway and watch the shadows of Sooty Terns or Masked Boobies following me. I can't see the birds, but I can watch their shadows in front of me, on the ground shadowing me 2 feet above my head. Whenever the horizon is clear for sunset we watch the green flash as the sun disappears below the horizon. For 50 years I thought the green flash was a myth and at Tern Island I found out that it is real. I live and work and spend my days in a colony of more than 200,000 seabirds. The work can wait for a minute or two.